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Beware of Angry Foodies
A day spent in the kitchen is a day well spent. I will never be as great a cook as my Mom was, but I do love to cook, and I manage to do a pretty good job. Even though I have a couple of bookcases full of recipe books, I still like to look at recipes on the internet to see if there is something new, or to get ideas for adding to old recipes. A couple of nights ago a recipe for a carrot, zucchini, and apple cake showed up in my Facebook time line, so I clicked on it.
After reading the recipe, I decided to look at the comments on the post (I should never do that). One gal said, “Just because it has veggies in it doesn’t mean it is good for you. Don’t make this.” And, another gal shrieked, “Flour and sugar will kill you!” (Emphasis added) Wow. I’ll bet the neighborhood potlucks with Debbie Downer and Morticia are a real hoot.
Sadly, these militant, angry foodies run rampant throughout our society. They seem to think that they are the only people on earth who should decide what everybody else eats. Looking down their snoots at the rest of us who just want to enjoy our food, they try like crazy to shame us into a diet that would make us as unhappy as they are. It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
There are as many fad diets as there are calories in a double meat, bacon, caramel doughnut burger with a side of fried cheesecake. If you want to lose weight, there is an expert with a special diet just for you. It is your choice. There are also a bunch of so-called experts out there who want to completely control every bite of food you consume. Whether it is the World Health Organization demanding that we remove all trans fats from our diets; some white coat wearing lab tech expounding on the dangers of bacon, beer and sausage; or the ubiquitous hippies with their organic everything, anti GMO, tinfoil hat, conspiracy theories – they are everywhere and they all want to control what you eat. (Just a friendly note: people who want to control one aspect of your life want to control all aspects of your life; it is a power thing.) Social media has made it real easy for these health-nut freaks to spread their angry food hate and shame into everybody’s life.
Food consumption and good health are unique to the individual. Some people metabolize food easier than others; some are genuinely allergic to certain foods; some have genetic disposition to obesity; some refuse to exercise and others must regulate their food due to medical conditions or diseases. When I was in my late 20s I topped out at 210 pounds (at only 5 ft. 4 in. that was way too much). I was in relatively good shape, but I was a porker and I decided to lose the weight. I lost 65 pounds without going on a diet. Yes, I did cut my portions, but I did not stop eating foods I like (no one will ever take bacon, fried potatoes and chocolate away from me – no one!) The weight came off as a result of daily exercise and portion control. Nothing fancy and nothing difficult. Thirty minutes a day on the treadmill and a few stretches were enough to do the job. I kept the weight off for 20 years, but have gained a little back in the last couple of years. It will be more difficult to lose the weight now, because I am older, but I can still do it if I work at it. There is the key to anything – if I work at it. It is an individual choice. Just like baking a carrot, zucchini, apple cake or consuming flour and sugar. For Debbie Downer; I will eat whatever I dang well please! And, for Morticia; newsflash, Sweetie, we are all going to die, no matter what we eat. I plan to enjoy each bite of precious food my Lord allows me to have.
Keep it real, folks. Ignore the angry foodies and their silly demands. There are too many people out there who want to control your life, so don’t let them.
Complacency is not an option.
Post Script: I don’t like asking, but if you wouldn’t mind, please share my GoFundMe account, and please say a prayer. Thank you and God bless you.
Published in General
Another example of “the Left ruins everything”.
I am a type 2 diabetic, so I have some pretty strict dietary restrictions. But I really can’t understand why some feel it is necessary to turn their own personal dietary habits and requirements in to universal, nearly religious restrictions?
If your body can’t handle carbs properly, like mine, then by all means, don’t eat the french fries. But why do some insist that others don’t? Do they really imagine that everyone’s chemistry is the same, that what is bad for them is universally bad for everyone?
If you have an aversion to gluten, then skip the gluten laden foods. Just don’t eat them. Pass them by. But stop acting like their existence on the table is meant to mock you, or tempt you, or will do physical damage to others! It just isn’t so. Everyone is different. Use self control, and stop expecting others to control for you.
Which I think is the bottom line for these food nazis. They really ache to eat the foods that are prohibited to them, (I know I do!) and so they object to the temptation of their very existence. If there were no potato chips in the world, then I wouldn’t have to use self control, so that is only fair. Right?
Apologies for disgression into a rant here. OK I’m wondering why the food police care what you do to yourself (we had one in a local meet up that barely could conceal her disapproval of what everyone else ordered for lunch). Then I remembered that some statistics guru had calculated what the “overweight” COST (gasp) the rest of the population, hatching the concern about their existence driving up of insurance costs to everyone else.
Well fine but I’ve looked around for a long time and never uncovered a central issue: What is counted as weight-related care? I’ve noticed that you can have a backache, leg or knee problem – well, nearly anything – and while people of the unheavy persuasion share that problem, if you carry some weight of course the WEIGHT is what’s caused your case. I seriously think the same would apply to sniffles or acne as well.
Second problem, while my own observations incline me to think the overweight tend to avoid doctors due to the reason above – there is a factor that would hugely increase the “cost” of obesity: Bariatric surgery. Is that counted or not in the “costs” we are sharing? Insurance didn’t use to cover that industry, now it often does. So if it was added but could be taken out of the cost comparisons, what would the truth really be?
<rant off>
Amen, brother! I have celiac disease. Ain’t no doughnuts or normal pizza crust or bread for me. But if you enjoy them? Go for it. I baked my wife a loaf of bread last night. She’s not celiac. Why should I make her suffer the lack? At certain times of year, I usually buy her a type of bagel she loves. I can’t eat them, but so what? She can and likes them.
The anti-gluten crusaders have made my life harder, not easier. Did you know that things that are labeled gluten-free don’t have to be? No, the standards are really more on the order of “very low gluten.” If you’re not literally allergic to gluten or don’t have celiac disease, it’s no big deal, but some of us are hyper-sensitive and any amount of gluten can trigger symptoms.
Third, gluten-free diets are bad for you! If you don’t absolutely have to avoid gluten, don’t do it. I surely wish I didn’t have to avoid it. Enjoy your bread. For 98% of the people, it’s good for you.
Meanwhile, all the vegan runner health nuts I have known have died younger than I now am.
Amen! Self control and moderation are things that seem to be missing from some people’s vocabulary.
You make a very important point: ailments of all sorts can affect body types of all sorts. Sadly, statistics don’t take into account that each individual is unique. Each has their own metabolism, genetic code, energy level, tolerance (or lack of tolerance) for certain foods, age – all of it adds up.
This is not something to be taken lightly. In their zeal to promote their ‘diet du jour’ they’ve managed to ignore people who have a genuine food allergy. It is dangerous for you, but they don’t care, as long as they can have pretty packaging that makes sure everybody knows about their current fetish.
Prayers for you, Arahant! May God bless and keep you safe.
I read an interesting article a few years back that argued that, as organized religion has waned and become less important in people’s lives, strict attitudes about food have replaced strict attitudes about sex. It’s really amazing when you begin to notice the parallels.
Interesting observation. I guess trading real moral values for nonsense has been the trend for decades. It is a sad statement about our culture.
Re: the Facebook comments: when the Internet was a new, shiny thing, comments and reviews really helped me make my mind up on things. Now, itsi imooimposs, other than eliminating products that have a technical defect.
I don’t usually look at comments (for obvious reasons). I just happened to on the recipe post. Sheesh! People get their skivvies in an uproar over the silliest things.
I was once in a homeschool co-op in which all the ladies seemed to have gone on the “Zone Diet.” They were all buying the right food and talking the talk.
One mom claimed some amazing health benefits from the Zone, and power to her. But when she criticized my lunch one day — that’s right, she literally came over to where my children and I were eating lunch and told us it was completely unhealthy (tuna salad with baby spinach leaves on whole wheat bread with apple slices for dessert) — I told her that I was not interested. “I listen to you guys go on about the Zone, and if it works for you and makes you feel better, great, but I already have a religion. I’m not looking for another one right now.”
That did not win me any friendship with her, nor did it get her off my back. There is no way to win with these people but capitulation, so I just ignore and go my own way.
No one I know who was doing the Zone 10 years ago is still in the Zone.
Wow. That is some audacious food shaming. You had the perfect response for her. I will never understand the mentality that drives people to think they know better how we should live our lives than we do. Sadly, in your case, your children and the children of others were there to see one fussy “adult” gal trying to tell you what to eat – an example has been set. Your children will learn from you, but hers will learn that it is okay to shame others for what they eat.
God bless you for keeping it real.
I remember in grade school I hated when other kids criticized whatever I was eating at lunch—usually because they thought it was gross rather than unhealthy—but still, it’s evidence of poor manners. If I wanted their opinion, I’d ask!
I always thought that people calling what I ate gross meant I was doing something right.
And that is the difference between boys and girls (or one of them).
If anybody is interested, I posted an update on my GoFundMe campaign. Please keep those prayers going up; you have no idea how much they mean and how well they are working! God bless you and thank you for putting up with me.
I’m happy to tell people what they should do with their televisions. Is that obnoxious enough?
When I was in grade school back when the Weekly Reader said we were heading into an Ice Age, the latest greatest thing was organic farming. I was growing up on a farm so I asked my Dad why he didn’t do organic farming. He promptly informed me that if he didn’t use weed and pesticide spray the corn would be so weedy and buggy we’d all have to go in the field to pull weeds from the sickly plants that were most likely being eaten by bugs. Seeing as how I hated to help Mom weed the garden and also how much I hated bugs, this was enough to put me off organics forever.
Soybeans could not be sprayed with the same kind of herbicides so kids were often employed (or just pressed into service by their parents) to “walk beans” – walking up and down rows of soybeans with a hoe to cut down weeds that the cultivator missed. The introduction of Round-up ready beans was greeted with hosannas by all farm kids who knew they never had to walk beans again.
It may just be an obstinate streak, but to this day I’ll avoid anything that is advertised as organic or non-GMO.
LOL! As long as you make sure they remove their presence from your lawn while you tell them what to do with their televisions; then it isn’t obnoxious, it is just survival!
I understand exactly what you are talking about! My Dad’s family was in the farming and ranching business. When it comes to produce, organic, to me, means more apt to be contaminated with icky things I don’t even want to think about; and when it comes to meat, antibiotics keep cattle healthy. Also, with beef, it has to be properly marbled; yes, it must have fat in order to have flavor. ;-)
Thank God for Dads who taught us how to be discerning.
Mrs R was born and raised on as Iowa farm, walked beans back in the day, and is far more insistent than I am about spending extra to get pesticide-free food. It depends on the food, though.
And one of my mother’s cousins who is more conservative, politically, than I am did some organic small-grain farming until a few years ago. I think he is also more GMO-wary than I am, though we haven’t talked about it a lot. I am not against GMOs in general. We’re all GMOs, after all. I understand the wariness about those that have pest poisons bred into them.
Where are all the recipes? All I could find was your Italian Meatloaf. And with 112 members, surely there are otherss
Most have been posted in separate threads and linked.
How can we find them?
Scroll down through the group posts and look for recipes or links that were posted.
I thought you would at least mention the uber-foodie, Michelle Obama, who ruled over the diets of a captive population — school children — for 8 years. She demanded rules, regulations and laws to enforce this program, which had school kids throwing their lunches in the trash, school administrators confiscating lunches brought from home that did not comply, and people cursing the healthy foods in the vending machines. A sorry, sorry chapter in our nation’s history to be sure, and not over too soon.
Republican FLOTUSs will encourage you to learn to read, stay in school, and not use drugs. This particular Democrat FLOTUS demanded coercion.
This one? Is Food the New Sex? by Mary Eberstadt at Hoover.
Or maybe this one: George Will talking about the one above.
Both excellent and well worth reading.
I’m not sure it’s entirely over. My daughter works in the kitchen at the local high school where children receiving free or reduced-price lunches will NOT be allowed to pass without all the required fruits and veggies on the tray. Also, everything is whole-wheat from pizza crust to tortillas. I’m afraid the days of lunch lady brownies and cinnamon rolls are over forever.